Ghana beacon of stability, democracy — AU report

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (right) interacting with Ambassador Smail Chergui (2nd right), and other members of his delegation at the Jubilee House in Accra. Picture: Samuel Tei Adano

A Report by the African Union on Ghana’s structural vulnerability and resilience assessment has established that Ghana has the lowest level of per capita in violence in Africa and stands as a beacon of stability and democracy.

According to the report, it was also found out that the policies being implemented by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration had created confidence in the socio-economic space.

Again, the policies had helped the government to make great strides in gender equality in appointments, especially to key positions, the report added.

The African Union (AU) Commissioner for Peace and Stability, Ambassador Smail Chergui, made this known when he presented a copy of the report on “Ghana’s Structural Vulnerability and Resilience Assessment” to President Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House last Wednesday.

He explained that the report was compiled following a joint action by the commission and the Ghana government.

Good initiative

Presenting the report, Ambassador Chergui said the assessment also revealed that Ghana had a very good early warning system for violence and commended the country for such an initiative.

He described President Akufo-Addo as a known Pan Africanist who was dedicated to the implementation of the African agenda and said he was confident that the AU would continue to count on him.

Ambassador Chergui said the AU was also proud of the recent public statements President Akufo-Addo made in defence of the continent, especially in the presence of leaders from the West, in an era when multi-lateralism was under siege.

“I think we need leaders like you to really take us forward in dealing with the challenges that are coming,” he said, noting that the current economic war between the economic giants of the world would have grave repercussions on Africa.

President Akufo-Addo

Receiving the report, President Akufo-Addo said Ghana attached a great deal of importance to the work of the AU and its unification and integration objective and cited Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, as having played a major role as a torch bearer of Pan Africanism.

He said successive Presidents of Ghana had, with great commitment, contributed to the same agenda of Pan Africanism, adding that he would also continue to bear the torch because “Ghana’s national interest is inextricably linked to the continental agenda”.

President Akufo-Addo expressed excitement that Ghana offered to be the first country to be assessed in an area that was of grave concern to many of the people on the continent.

He said unfortunately, Africa was still witnessing the major challenge of insecurity and, therefore, the work of the commission in trying to establish mechanisms for the various nations to find ways of preventing and controlling instability was in the right direction.

He said the engagement of member states to work with the commission to deal with endemic and serious problems was commendable and gave an assurance that Ghana would support all such initiatives.

President Akufo-Addo said he would continue to support AU reforms being championed by President Paul Kagame to have a fit-for-purpose AU.